A blog and webstore of the Byzantine Catholic tradition
The Apostolic Root Where are you rooted?

Library › The Church Fathers › Ignatius of Antioch › Ignatius to the Smyrnaeans › Chapter 3

Ignatius of Antioch

Epistle to the Smyrnaeans

Chapter 3

Christ was possessed of a body after His resurrection.

For I know that after His resurrection also He was still possessed of flesh,1 and I believe that He is so now. When, for instance, He came to those who were with Peter, He said to them, “Lay hold, handle me, and see that I am not an incorporeal spirit.”2 And immediately they touched Him, and believed, being convinced both by His flesh and spirit. For this cause also they despised death, and were found its conquerors.3 And after His resurrection He did eat and drink with them, as being possessed of flesh, although spiritually He was united to the Father.

Notes

  1. Literally, “in the flesh.”↩
  2. Literally, “demon.” According to Jerome, this quotation is from the Gospel of the Nazarenes. Comp. Luke xxiv. 39.↩
  3. Literally, “above death.”↩

Translation by Alexander Roberts, James Donaldson and Frederick Crombie: The Ante-Nicene Christian Library, vol. 1: The Apostolic Fathers (Edinburgh: T. & T. Clark, 1870).
Text from Project Gutenberg eBook #77576, proofread by Distributed Proofreaders from Internet Archive scans. Public domain.